To say the amnesty bill is an emotional issue is an understatement. The Capitol Hill phones have been ringing non-stop, causing some members to simply unplug them, and turn off their answering machines. They are hearing from their constituents that they don’t want this amnesty bill to pass and they are ignoring these pleas.
But to have a citizen arrested because they disagree is beyond the pale and begs the question, why do they care more about illegal aliens than they do their own constituents?
Homeless activist, Ted Hayes, was on Capitol Hill, like thousands of other citizens who make unscheduled visits to their congressional offices, and to other offices that don’t represent their congressional district. There is an open door policy on Capitol Hill, and anyone who has been there or worked there knows it.
Ted, who founded and ran the homeless shelter in South Central L.A., called Dome Village, was in Washington on June 19 to visit Hon. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick on the issue of immigration. In the elevator going to her floor, he and his colleagues, Mr. James Spencer and Mr. Terrance Lang, began a conversation with some folks from Chicago who were going to see Maxine Waters in an unscheduled, meeting. Ted told them that James was from her district in Los Angeles, and they would tag along and see if they could see her as well.
When they all arrived at the office, both groups were warmly welcomed by the staff. The Chicago group was ushered into Maxine’s personal office, and Ted, James and Terrance, waited patiently in the front room of the congressional office. They could hear laughter coming from her office and felt it was a sign that she was in a good mood and would receive their concerns about the amnesty bill.
Ted’s concern with the bill is that, as a black man who has worked with the homeless and disadvantaged for years, he sees an amnesty bill as one more obstacle for poor blacks to overcome. He sees the illegal aliens in his home area of Los Angeles putting an insurmountable burden on the social welfare and education system, and sees jobs that would ordinarily go to his people . . . going to the illegals. And when he speaks out about it, he is castigated as a racist, called names, slandered and threatened.
But this day, he was hopeful that since Maxine was seeing people half way across the nation, from a totally different district, that she would take the time to talk to one of her own constituents and their friends.
After the meeting ended though, and the Chicago group left, buoyed by the personal, engaging encounter, they waited hopefully for her to emerge from her private office and give them an audience. She did emerge, but not to talk to them. She walked right past them, which is hard to do in a ten by ten foot reception area, with two grown men standing, and one sitting. But she did, leaving the congressional office and heading for the hall. Ted got up to follow her asking why she was doing this . . . why wasn’t she going to talk to them? To this query she spun around and responded, “You are full of sh-t”, “You are full of sh-t, Ted Hayes.” I forgot to mention that she knows Ted, and has known him for 23 years. For those of you who don’t know Ted, he can be imposing in his appearance, standing 6’7”, dressed in long robs, dreadlocks, skullcap and sandals. It would be easy for the guards, who heard the ruckus, to assume that he was a foreign assailant and a threat to the congresswoman.
When he suggested that if she turns her back on her black constituents . . .the way she just did to them, and votes for the amnesty bill, that she would be through in congress. She would be finished. The female guard took this as a terrorist threat, and handcuffed him. Congresswoman Maxine Waters did nothing to prevent this, show a semblance of leadership and come to the aid of a good man that she has known for 23 years.
She could have said, “It’s ok officer, Ted is a constituent, and from the LA area, he and I disagree on a lot of issues, but believe me, he is not a terrorist. He is just passionate, as I am, about certain issues.” Did she do this? Did she care about this man she has known, being handcuffed in the halls of congress, escorted out the front doors of the Rayburn House Office Building, jailed, and charged with disorderly conduct? No, but what she did care about was whether or not he would talk to the press. Her office called and expressed her concern that this story of his arrest not be leaked to the press, and not get back to her district.
He said he would honor that request because he wanted to do the right thing, and did not want to hurt her in any way. He was just trying to have a conversation about illegal immigration and how it was hurting blacks and was confused as to why she was turning her back on her people, and was more sympathetic with people not only not from her district . . . but also not from her country.
The reason you are hearing about this now, is that he called me from the airport to apologize for not being able to call me on the 19th, to verify that we were going to get together. He sounded very embarrassed and ashamed that he had been arrested, and told me that was why he had not called. He asked me not to say anything to the press, but I told him his arrest was a matter of public record and anyone could get access to the details. And, people have right to know how out of control and arrogant this congress is on this, and many other issues.
Realizing that if this story got out, that she could look like a real elitist hypocrite in her district, Maxine offered to drop the charges if Ted would come in and apologize. Basically, denying that she was culpable of any wrong doing, even hitting him in the chest when he tried to come back into her office as she was slamming the door on him. So, she wants HIM to come and kiss her ring, and beg for mercy, and she will drop the charges.
That is a type of coercive blackmail that is in full operation on Capitol Hill, surrounding this amnesty bill, in the form of markups and pork-laden amendments. Even though almost 80% of Americans are against this bill, and have tried and tried to make their voices heard . . . they are also getting the Maxine Waters treatment, without the handcuffs and jail cell. They are being ignored, mocked, ridiculed and demonized by these people who are supposed to be “representing” them.
Congress is totally out of control, and out of touch. It is all about power and newfound votes, to keep that power. And it is both parties . . . not just Maxine’s democrat party. From Trent Lott to Lindsey Graham, who refer to those opposing the bill as bigots, and conservative talk radio as the fuel flaming those bigoted flames, the lines are clearly being drawn.
The two Americas that John Edward’s loves to talk about are his America of wealthy, elitist politicians who feel they are above the law, above the rest of us, and hold the purse strings to pay for their self-serving projects that ensure they will not be defeated. And just to sweeten the pot, if they let illegals move to the front of the line of citizenship, they hope to get rewarded with their votes. They are the new constituent de jour, and they aren’t even citizens. They slam doors in the faces of real citizens, while carrying the water for lawbreakers who have no vested interest in protecting our national interests or freedoms. The other America is the regular taxpayer who has to pay for their vanities, their well-crafted follies that ensure their survival in a job that we trusted them with.
Ted is symbolic of all of us who are classified as the disdainful necessities of absolute power. Their purring and posturing before an election ensures that once they are safely ensconced in their position of arrogant assumption, they can order the electorate to the back of the political bus and ignore their cries of protest and opposition. They can have us arrested and offer to drop charges only if we acknowledge before a tribunal that yes, they are all powerful, all knowing all seeing, and incapable of doing any wrong.
If they want to prove that the assumption I have made is wrong, then prove it by taking all rights for these illegal aliens, to ever vote, out of the amnesty bill. Make us believe that it is not about the votes and there is some higher, altruistic reason for this bill. They can’t, and they won’t. They will sell out our heritage for a handful of votes to keep them in the position of having the power to destroy each of us, and will demonstrate that absolute power by having us handcuffed and thrown in jail if we disagree with them.
And if we continue to let them do this, then shame on us.
